2024: The Year of Action — Bringing Your Ideas To The Front

This means your work is not about how much you can create, but crafting work that matters for people where you bring an idea to life. 

It’s a shift from passive consumption, or getting ChatGPT doing all the work for you, to encouraging people to be active participants in your work. 

This is how I am looking at 2024, where we can push the narrative from anecdotal evidence and the ‘how to’ mantra, to real-time, tangible endeavours. 

To many people, posting is a way to be seen. That will always remain. To take things up a notch, the winners will be those who can make things happen and transform ideas into something far more impactful.

The common misconception is that we need more. More time, more resources, and more information, before taking that first step. In reality, you have everything to start.

Often we look at what others have done and that becomes our benchmark. 

We shape our actions to align with what feels familiar. However, just because someone else tells us how to behave like them, what is delivered often diverges from the original intention. What starts with a burst of energy, starts to lose momentum when trying to behave like someone else. 

Taking an idea and making it happen means shedding the need for someone else’s best practice. It’s about realising that no one is going to pick you, it’s time to choose yourself. This isn’t about perfect execution, it’s about putting your best foot forward. This is the only way to make an impact.

YATM is about making ideas happen, that don’t live in a box.

When I say ‘live in a box,’ I mean ideas that never see the light of day. They could be left in an Evernote folder, or a LinkedIn post that doesn’t ever see progress to something tangible. 

It’s about genuine involvement where the intention is connection, rapport and familiarity. This is different from distribution and attention.

A lot of what has happened over the years is encouraging people to join in with an idea they perhaps haven’t participated in before. 

Since 2020 YATM has delivered online shows, offline learning and in-person gatherings that have taken the torch to create initiatives that go beyond the ordinary.

Wider ideas have sparked action such as introducing Game Nite, introducing YATM within education (Creator Lab and Business Class) and social impact with Stand With Chand (a collective action effort against bullying).

These all represent the ability to see ideas through and champion causes that matter. It could be as simple as meeting up with like-minded people. 

They all come with risks, but if you don’t start, you’ll never know. It means that activity thrives on bringing ideas to life.

Making something happen is taking the initiative to turn what lives in a corner into something that people can join in with. 

It could be the start of your newsletter, it could be the desire to speak more, it could be the wish to start your new podcast, it could be being a better writer or presenter. It could just being more active so people know who you are and what you stand for. 

Imagine a world with no middlemen or constraints. What would you do? 

1) The answer lies in initiating and being the first to make that brave step up. It’s filled with uncertainty as it could be something you haven’t done before, but that is where the opportunity sits, where you refuse to follow the maps that have already been drawn up.

2) There is also an acceptance to recognise that failure is not the endpoint, but a byproduct of doing. It becomes a great teacher. Many ideas that I have started just haven’t worked but they have led to iterations that become a much stronger delivery. It means that what might not work at the beginning paves the way for success.

3) You can’t hold back and keep everything tucked away. Resistance is just self-doubt, when you take this out of the way and make those first steps, it’s essential for progress. As you gently progress you become more confident in yourself and growing your ego is fine, we shouldn’t wait for approval.

The biggest cost and hindrance to yourself is doing nothing or just fitting in.  

Bringing your idea to life means you start to hit milestones, each contributing to the overall momentum.

This is the path I have seen time and time again.

Visibility 

This is part of your initial stages. This is when you are vocal about what you are doing. It’s the posts you make to raise awareness to your intentions. This is where you spend a lot of the time on the page, garnering support. It’s about distribution, rather than connection.

Action 

This is where you start and what you promised is real. Delivery on commitments becomes the foundation for wider exposure. It means your actions supersede mere thoughts. For instance, you share your first newsletter, you publish your first podcast.

Connection 

This is where people can see what you are doing so it fosters commitment from their side. Trust starts to play a huge role here. For instance, it could be subscribing, it could recommending to someone else, it could be standing beside you and sharing with others that it is a worthy commitment to make. 

Impact 

This is where you make that step beyond the immediate and influence others. What you start to do is create that space where people can join in and momentum starts to happen. It means that people are there for you when you want them to be there. Reaching out for help also becomes much easier.  

Over time, you realise that your work becomes a means to make an impact, attracting other people to join in with you. The following steps are a stepping stone framework:

Know what it is you want to focus on.

Believing in yourself and an idea is the key driver to starting. For instance, it could be a newsletter on a particular stance within your industry that doesn’t strike a chord with you, or an approach that may be outdated. At the start, it does feel like a slog. For instance, the thousands of subscribers you thought would happen because someone else shouts about it, may only be a handful. However, as more people see you pushing the cart they will more likely join in with you.

Welcome people when you see them. 

You want to make others feel a part of your work. When someone makes that decision to join in with your efforts (it could be a subscriber, it could be a customer), that is a huge compliment to what you are doing. Let other people know they are seen and make them feel appreciated. I now use automation more when people subscribe to the YATM newsletter, in terms of a welcome email and an email at the first week they have subscribed. However, I’ll still try to find time to send a personal hello video. Making people feel at home is important.

Connect the people who join in. 

When people decide to join in with you, it is also your opportunity to connect. Opening up new possibilities expands your net. You can’t do everything yourself, the expertise and connection to others, over time, become your pillar of strength. What you start to do is cement the relationships with everyone who joins in. You start to make your own team. For instance, on the YATM newsletter, someone from the community introduces themselves every Thursday.

When people from outside your endeavours take note, this strengthens what you are doing.

This is what comes back to your overall beliefs and values that become ignited outside of your immediate space. It’s about more people taking notice and then over to you to make participation worthwhile. You now have visibility, credibility and the added ability to create a welcoming atmosphere.

Buy-in, involvement, attention, awareness, commitment and impact – all emanate from doing. 

It’s not about keeping ideas in your head, only actions can make a difference.

Taking action is always the best step – learn to make a video, initiate the blog, and begin a newsletter. 

If you can make something happen, you don’t want to miss your chance. Your work isn’t about how much you can create. The answer is never about volume, but crafting work that matters and encouraging people to be active participants in your work. 

Social posting helps you to be seen, but the winners will be those who can make things happen and transform ideas into something far more impactful. 

Here’s to making 2024 the year where your ideas spring to life and your actions speak louder than words.